


Physical Compatibility

by SparkleTindi



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Background Comphs/Kerfy/Josty, Feel Free to Suggest Additional Tags, Get-Together Fic, M/M, OT3, Pacific Rim AU, Possibly Had Too Much Fun Researching, SO FLUFFY, This got long, hockey-typical violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 03:56:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18380471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparkleTindi/pseuds/SparkleTindi
Summary: It was usually great, being in Tyson's head. Tyson was blessed of a sunny personality and didn't get hung up on stupid shit. Of course, there were exceptions to every rule, and this one was particularly awkward.Nate and Tyson are perfect Drift partners, and then a hot Swede complicates things. And then they get even MORE complicated.





	Physical Compatibility

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [hockeysmut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hockeysmut/pseuds/hockeysmut) in the [wesmashing](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/wesmashing) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
> pacific rim au!! nate and tys are definitely drift compatible so have fun with that. can be romantic or not!
> 
> possible other side-drift compatible pairs:  
> \- Zadorov/Calvert  
> \- Landeskog/Rantanen
> 
>  
> 
> Rated almost entirely for hockey swearing, of which there is a lot. Did not manage Z/Calvert. I did try, but they would not cooperate. Somehow I blame Ian Cole. xD
> 
> Thank you to @dalmatienne for the awesome last-minute beta work! I am bad at deadlines. >.>

Monday afternoon got off to a rocky start. Tyson tried to back out of their Jaeger's systems test, claiming illness. "Unless you're dying or you've been excused by the infirmary, Barrie, get in the Conn Pod," Sergeant Bednar said impatiently. "Several people have taken extra time to make this systems test happen, and you were fine this morning."

Nate gave his Drift partner a concerned look as they finished putting on the carbon fiber pieces that shielded their conductive inner suits. Canine Azure's engineer, Helene, and her assistants fitted the spines in their suits and bolted everything on. "You really don't look great," Nate said in an undertone as they stepped into the Conn Pod, Canine Azure's head. "Why didn't you go to Doc Sokolowski?"

"I'm okay, just slept like absolute shit last night," Tyson said, grimacing as he pulled his helmet on. "I can't focus at all, though, not that I'd tell Bednar that."

"Well let me lead us into the Drift, then," Nate said, doing the same, and he saw Tyson flinch as his view cleared. "What?"

"It's nothing." Tyson shook his head, stomping a bit harder than strictly necessary into the foot pad. "Dreams," he added as the clamps secured his hands and feet into the motion harness.

"Okay, well let me know if we need to back out of the Handshake, okay?" Nate said, and Tyson set his jaw. "All right," Nate sighed and let the techs finish hooking him into his own harness.

"I may make some adjustments to your setups," Helene said, frowning at Tyson, who was fidgeting. "That should feel more intuitive."

Nate offered, "Tys and I swapped sides early on and I don't think we ever adjusted it back."

Helene's expression cleared. "That's right, and we couldn't just swap over the layouts because they're linked to the left and right side of the Jaeger." She smiled at Nate. "I had forgotten because you're both so natural on the sides you're on now. Dom!" This last was to her brother, the head mechanic for Canine Azure and a few other Jaegers. "We need some hardware adjustments!"

Dom came in to see what his sister was yelling about. "Oh right we didn't do readjustments when they swapped," he said. "Feet as well?"

"We should probably do measurements and get the full rigout overhauled," Helene said. "They've both bulked up as well since we started Jaeger training." She winked at Nate and Tyson. "All muscle." Helene had made it absolutely clear from their introduction three months ago that she was not interested but didn't mind platonic flirting. Tyson took to it better than Nate, but they were both as comfortable with her and Dom as they were their fellow cadets.

They were about to get into a technical discussion when Bednar cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, but some of us are on a tighter schedule and we need to run the Handshake test so we can keep to it. Perhaps Barrie and Mackinnon can come back down when they have free time?"

Helene and Dom exchanged a rueful look; Nate occasionally wondered if they were Drift compatible themselves. "Right, sir," the engineer said. "Everything appears to be ready, in that case."

"Then disembark and we'll prepare for a full systems test," Bednar said. "Halstead, you have the call."

Halstead counted down the time to initiate the Pilot-to-Pilot protocol, and Nate settled in to wait for the Drift. In the other harness, Tyson still shifted. That was the only hint Nate got that this might be bumpy before they slid into the Drift, that neural space shared between two Jaeger pilots that was almost but not quite telepathy. Memories had more of an impact in the Drift, along with feelings... and dreams, which were a combination of the two.

"Connection stable in both hemispheres," Halstead announced. "Right is slightly lower."

"To be expected if he's not feeling 100%," Bednar said. "Continue."

Nate expected to get wisps of nightmares or Tyson's headache or something as they slid into the Drift. Instead, what he got was... well, they  _ had _ both seen Gabriel Landeskog shirtless, but not with... Nate lost the thread of Halstead's voice as he stared at the dream of Tyson and Gabe kissing... and something with whipped cream? He was jerked back out as the connection was cut.

"Abort; cancel Drift sequence," Bednar was saying, his voice level. Nate had heard him yell in anger only twice since he'd arrived at Victoria but he did sound solemn. "Mark it down as a failure, Halstead."

"Yes, sir," Halstead said. "Are we going to try again?"

"Depends. What the hell was that?" Bednar demanded of the cadets, still calm.

Nate looked over at Tyson, who was cherry red and breathing heavily. "My fault," he said without thinking, and Tyson's brown eyes met his blue ones as his head jerked up. "I said I'd lead it and Tys was waiting on me and it got messy." Tyson dropped his head again, but he didn't argue.

They were saved from further excuses or trying again by a loud klaxon. "We've run out of time for the day," Bednar said with a sigh. "Lee, can your teams still do the adjustments to their setup?" He was talking to Dom and Helene both; Bednar's sense of dignity didn't lend to using first names, even in this situation.

Dom and Helene exchanged another glance; Nate idly wondered if they had real telepathy as he waited. "Yeah, but it'll take a bit; we have the physical telemetry and there was a strong Handshake, just a chaotic one." Helene's voice was neutral, but both Nate and Tyson looked down at their boots. Nate sighed and unclipped his, understanding by Helene's tone that they were all done. Tyson echoed the movement, which Nate felt rather than seeing. Drift hangover. Not their first; almost everyone got lost at least once, but definitely a strong one. Now Nate  _ was _ feeling Tyson's headache.

"All right, well I'll leave it to you to schedule the fittings," Bednar said. "Halstead." The two officers left, and there was a general loosening of the atmosphere when it was just the Lees in the control room and the partners in the Conn Pod.

"What the fuck was  _ that _ ?" Nate said bluntly. Dom and Helene had actually  _ seen  _ their last failure because it had been in the sim, so neither was shy.

"I  _ told  _ you I feel like shit," Tyson started, and Nate gave him a look. It was usually great, being in Tyson's head. Tyson was blessed of a sunny personality and didn't get hung up on stupid shit. Of course, there were exceptions to every rule, and this one was particularly awkward; Nate had known Tyson was bi pretty much from day one; that wasn't the problem, but there were things you didn't discuss except between partners, and that included sex fantasies involving other people.

Nate sighed. "Let's get changed so Dom and Helene can get back to work and we can talk about it on the way back." The walk back to their shared room was uncharacteristically quiet as they both tried to clear their heads from the Drift failure and get somewhere they wouldn't be overheard.

Nate waited before Tyson had shut the heavy steel door to their room before he complained, "Can you just ask him for his room number or something? This is getting awkward, and it's only gonna get  _ more _ awkward when I have to be in the leadership class with him in like half an hour."

"This is why I didn't want to do this today," Tyson groaned. "I'm sorry, dude. I'll try to keep it out of the Drift." Still in the Drift hangover, Nate caught frustration and embarrassment. "Thanks for taking the blame for me, though."

"Dude, you're my BFF and my Drift partner," Nate said, giving him a rough, one-armed hug. Just keep your fantasies about licking whipped cream off Gabe's abs  _ out  _ of my head." Tyson turned crimson and Nate laughed. "Yeah, well, how do you think  _ I'm  _ gonna manage today with that there now?" he said to his partner's unspoken complaint.

"Trade you?" Tyson joked, and Nate snorted.

"You'll get your chance soon enough." He caught another burst of frustration. "Tys. We're down a guy already so your spot is waiting for you. We'll see you in the class in a couple weeks, when they finish entry exams on everyone else." He pulled on a clean shirt. "Man, I'm starving now. Meet me after so we can go right down and get dinner?"

When he saw Gabe come into the leadership class, Nate contemplated tackling the problem from the other end. Tys was a great guy and Nate had been wingman for him on shore leave plenty of times. He had firsthand knowledge of most of Tyson Barrie's finer qualities and was great at talking him up. 

Then Gabe came over to talk, and Nate felt a faint echo of Tyson's attraction from their Drift hangover.  _ Oh for fuck's  _ **_entire_ ** _ sake, Tyson,  _ Nate thought, masking the thought with a smile at the older guy. "Hey. Mackinnon, right?" Gabe said, sitting down next to Nate.

"Nate," Nate insisted. "The last name thing is too formal for me."

"Fair enough!" the Swede laughed. "I'm Gabe, then. Or Landy. Where's your Drift partner?" he asked, as if he'd read Nate's thoughts.

"Tyson missed the window because he was sick," Nate said. This wasn't entirely true, but there were always enough people trying to tear his partner down without him giving them more ammunition. Gabe was apparently very lickable in Tyson's mind but that didn't mean he could be trusted yet. "He'll get in later," Nate added, because this was true.

Gabe nodded. "That'd be cool."

"Where's yours?" Nate asked, figuring fair was fair.

Gabe shrugged. "Dutchy's not here," he replied, his expression going opaque for a minute. "He didn't want to stay in Victoria."

"That  _ sucks _ , dude," Nate said. "When do you get to test for another one?"

"Tomorrow," Gabe said. "They're running everyone again I guess? Might be some shakeups."

For a minute, Nate was worried about his bond with Tyson, but then he shrugged it off. "Well you can't have mine," he said aloud. "We're solid."

Gabe laughed. "Okay, but what if I wanted you instead?"

Nate was gonna have to yell at Tyson because why the fuck was he blushing if it wasn't Drift weirdness? "I think Tys would have something to say about that as well," he managed.

Gabe elbowed him in a friendly way. "I'll stop picking on you. I hope I get a bond as tight as you guys seem to have."

Nate thought about that while the teacher of the leadership class was droning on about something. It was true that as soon as they'd met, Nate had had a feeling about Tyson, but what if his partner's crush was more than that? It was weird enough that Nate and Tyson had matched so strongly, instead of Tyson and his childhood buddy Jamie. Apart from the usual growing pains and their failure this afternoon, they'd never had a problem meshing.

He glanced over at Gabe and saw that the blond was doodling on his notebook, just like in high school. Just random loopy swirls and maybe... was that a puppy? Gabe caught him looking and blushed. Nate grinned and looked forward again.

Tyson was waiting when they got out of the class. "Hi," he managed to say to Gabe, and Nate, safely behind the Swede, rolled his eyes. Tyson glared at him, which made Gabe look back just as Nate started laughing.

"Okay if this is what it's like having good Drift compatibility, I really wanna find a good partner this time," Gabe said, grinning, and Nate nodded. Tyson sighed, and Gabe reached around Nate to ruffle his curly brown hair. "Don't worry, that's a good thing."

Tyson turned very red and Nate almost started giggling, stopping himself by saying, "So what was up with... Dutchy, you called him?" When Gabe glanced at him, Nate added, "If you don't mind."

"Nah, it was just a whole mess," Gabe said, whooshing his breath out. "He was fine with me and our connection was pretty good, but I guess it was taking too long to get us in a proper Jaeger so he wanted out. When he found out I wanted to stay, the connection soured." He smiled at Nate's expression. "It's fine now. We talked about it and now that we're not in each other’s heads it's not as messy."

"Yeah but that still sucks," Tyson said, and he sounded more genuine than Nate had heard him around Gabe. "I'm sorry, man."

Gabe flashed that grin directly at Tyson and Nate was really glad you only got your partner's full thoughts while you were actually Drifting, because he could tell Tyson's had fallen into the gutter. "Honestly, since he wanted out, I'm glad we didn't click as well as you and Nate do. I have a chance of finding a partner that wants to be here as much as I do, y'know?"

Before Nate had to rescue Tyson from a terminal case of "omg my crush is talking to me," they reached a split in the corridor and Gabe slapped them both on the back. "Here's my exit," he said. "See ya both at dinner?" He waved without waiting for a reply and the pair stared after him.

Nate was gonna yell at Tyson for the whole spillover thing that had happened in the leadership class, but his partner still looked pretty stunned, so he just elbowed him instead. "Look at you!" he chirped. "You had an actual conversation."

"Shut up, Nate," Tyson retorted. "I'm five years older than you are; you don't get to give me shit about flirting."

"I'm your Drift partner, dude. I can give you shit about whatever I want," Nate said with a laugh. "I'm also the one in the leadership class, bud. I didn't tell him anything so stop glaring at me. I just told him you might join us in class after you get some shit squared away, in so many words."

Tyson, who had started to hunch up, relaxed. "Thanks."

"You are my bff, dude, I said that." Nate patted him on the shoulder. "And it's not like you haven't done the same for me before. Wingmanning is like half the job on leave, right?"

"It'd help if you weren't so picky," Tyson said, relaxing the rest of the way into the familiar bickering.

Dinner wasn't as awkward; you had to be pretty forceful to be heard over the general cacophony in the mess hall, so it cut through a lot of the stammering and silliness from Tyson. Once they started talking food, the shyness vanished in any case, and Nate mostly sat back and watched, putting in an opinion when he was asked. He watched with fondness as Tyson expounded about baking, telling Gabe about his favorite recipes, both to make and to eat. "The lava cakes are amazing," he said when there was a break, and was rewarded with a bright grin from Tyson.

Gabe smiled. "If we get the supplies, I'll have to have you make them for me," he said, and Tyson, who'd been holding his own to that point, turned bright red again. Gabe chuckled.

Nate turned the subject to the upcoming trials before he let himself get sidetracked by Tyson's dirty thoughts. "So, who are you gonna get stuck with?" he teased Gabe.

"EJ doesn't seem  _ that _ bad, Tys,” Gabe said, and Tyson snorted. “What'd he do?" Gabe replied.

"He put a fish in Willy's shaving kit and replaced Z's deodorant with glitter before a date."

Gabe laughed. "How'd the date go?"

"Oh it went fine anyway; the girl is head-over-heels for Z and a little sparkle only improves it," EJ himself said, leaning on Tyson before the shorter guy shoved him off. "Telling tales?"

"He asked," Tyson replied. "I didn't even get to the bit about letting raccoons loose in the weight room."

"I didn't do that, no one can prove I did," EJ said automatically, earning matching skeptical noises from Nate and Tyson. "The fact that they ran off Therrien a week after he failed to get written up for being a shit is entirely coincidental."

Nate shrugged. "Like you said, no one can prove it, and you would have had to have had help from the maintenance staff," he said, and EJ grinned his toothless grin. "What do you think about the re-run?"

"They're bringing new blood in," EJ said. "Came over to tell you I overheard a couple of the adjutants talking about it. At least eight, maybe more." He winked at Gabe. "So you might not be stuck with me, just a wet rookie."

"At least wet rookies are trainable," Gabe chirped back. "So they're putting it off again?"

"Dunno," EJ said. "Tomorrow should give them time to settle in, right?" He sat down next to Gabe and changed the subject back to his pranks.

After dinner, Tyson was quiet. "You're not worried about us, are you?" Nate asked as he shut the door to their room.

Tyson shook his head, then shrugged. "I don't know, maybe? You and Gabe really seem to get along."

Nate shrugged. "He's a cool guy, but I'm friends with all sorts of guys who I wouldn't Drift with if you paid me." He didn't mention that Gabe had promised not to split them up because it wasn't in his power to promise that. "Do  _ you _ want to Drift with him instead?" Nate asked, suddenly worried.

"Fuck no," Tyson said forcefully. " _ You're _ my partner, okay?" He blushed as Nate stared. "Look, I knew as soon as I met you there was something there, and I won't give that up for any other gorgeous dude." He mumbled the last bit, redder than before.

It was Nate's turn to get flustered. "The first day?" he said, focusing on the part he was sure he’d heard right.

"Yeah, dude, as soon as I took you to see Canine Azure the first time and you loved her like I did," Tyson said, relaxing. "She's ours, yours and mine."

Nate relaxed as well. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. It's not like they could improve on our neural handshake anyway, right?"

"Exactly," Tyson said. "We're super solid, Nate. I wouldn't wanna do this with anyone else."

Nate reached out for a fistbump. "Well then let's just show the rookies some damn fine hockey tomorrow," he said.

Tyson returned it with a grin. "You've got it, partner."

The trials were first thing in the morning.  The layout was very simple: instead of a dojo, the Victoria Shatterdome had a hockey rink. There were no goalies for this part, just two skaters at the faceoff dot. When the whistle sounded, they were to get the puck from the other in any way possible. When one skater got to three goals, the contest was over. What the officers were looking for was an even match, lots of volleying and stickhandling as they anticipated each other's moves.

Nate fidgeted in his seat; he wasn't sure why he was nervous; he and Tyson had a great bond. But he'd seen partners of long standing broken up when they got new guys in and you never knew. "Hey, you're fine," Gabe said softly, bumping Nate with his shoulder. "You and Tys are rock solid."

"I know," Nate said with a weak smile. "Thanks though."

Tyson was on the ice, bouncing a bit in his skates as they chose another partner. He groaned audibly when the tall blond skated up. "Really? Again?"

"We have to run through everyone, Barrie," Bednar said in the patient voice he reserved for backtalk. "You know that."

Tyson sighed and squared up. "Hope you're ready to get skated onto your ass again, Johnson."

Nate watched as Tyson demolished Johnson, and then the next three skaters he faced. Bednar and the other officers didn't look surprised, only resigned. "Landeskog, Barrie," the sergeant called out, and Gabe bumped Nate again.

"I promise I won't steal your boy," he said in an undertone. Nate tried not to let his jaw visibly drop as the Swede winked at him, stepping onto the ice and skating over to Tyson.

"You and Landy got something going on?" Compher teased, plopping in the latter's vacated seat. "Should Barrie be worried?"

"Nah, Landy flirts with everyone," Comphs' partner, Kerfy, said, sitting on the redhead's other side.

Nate laughed because it was true and relaxed. "What do you think of the new blood?" he asked the pair, nodding towards where the recruits were leaning against the wall. He lost track of the conversation for a moment because Gabe had just done a  _ sick _ deke around Tyson to get the first goal, but it was okay because Comphs and Kerfy were in awe as well.

"We've still got an odd number," Kerfy pointed out.

"Look at the college boy, doing math," Nate teased, and Kerfy laughed. "Yeah, I heard the big brains wanna see if you have to be triplets to work a three-way connection, so they're keeping an eye out. If not, you get one of the coaches until the numbers even out."

"Huh," Comphs replied. "Also I went to college as well, Mac, thank you."

Nate laughed and then sucked in air as Tyson rammed Gabe along the boards, taking the puck from him for an easy backhand. "Shit, they're getting rough." He sat forward a bit as Gabe, fired up, increased the pace of play and got another quick goal, this time on stickhandling. "Usually Tys is smoother," Nate muttered thoughtfully, as Gabe scored his last goal and whooped. Tyson smacked his stick against the ice, to out of breath to even chirp the Swede.

Nate expected to be called, but he was expecting to face Tyson. "Landeskog, Mackinnon, let's go," Bednar said instead. When Nate stared at him, the sergeant added, "Today, please."

Nate took a breath and stepped onto the ice, gliding over to Gabe. The Swede seemed just as surprised. "Maybe they want us for that trio test," he muttered as the officers discussed the changes with the ref and updated whatever charts they had going on.

"I guess?" Nate said. All talk was cut off as the ref returned.

Nate's focus narrowed to the puck and the opposing skater like it always did. He'd been chirped the first time he'd done this test that he could have gone pro, but with the California and Seattle teams all taken out by early kaiju, there wasn't as much space in the league as there used to be. Besides, Jaegers were their own reward. 

Most of his opponents were reasonably competent, a few were pretty good, but Gabe was  _ really _ good. Nate wasn't sure if they were syncing up because of Drift compatibility or because they were both good at hockey, and he didn't care. After Gabe's first goal, scored during a rough scramble at the net as Nate tried to play goalie without the gear, it became less about the test and more about  _ winning _ . He got the next two goals off his quick wrister, but Gabe hounded him up and down the line until the slightly-larger Swede bodied him off the puck and got a pretty goal of his own. The other recruits were yelling now, in violation of the usual rules, but the suits didn't seem to care.

Nate glanced over at the bench before the puck drop and saw Tyson. His partner was torn between amazement and fear, and that knocked Nate out of his rhythm for a moment. What if he lost Tyson instead of them becoming a triad? Gabe took advantage of him being off-balance and took aggressive possession. Nate recovered, but it was too late. With a swivel of his hips, Gabe gained the inside edge towards the net and flicked the puck in. For the first time since he'd joined, Nathan Mackinnon had lost the trial.

Gabe bumped him again as they both skated off for the ice resurfacer. "It's fine," he said quietly.

"That was awesome," Nate replied instead of saying anything about the situation, which might or might not be fine. The degree of fineness was yet to be determined. Besides, this was Tyson's fault anyway, and Nate could hardly say so.

Gabe gave him an exasperated look and clomped over to chirp EJ instead. Nate flopped down next to Tyson, who looked up at him and then back down at his skates. "He's good, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Nate said matter-of-factly, "but he's not you." When Tyson looked up again, startled, Nate said, "Look, dude. What just happened was some awesome hockey, and I am totally stealing Gabe if we do shinny again this winter, but it's not the same thing." Tyson looked back down and Nate whooshed a breath out in frustration. "It's not, Tys. I'll tell Bednar if he tries to split us up, but I don't think he will. You notice he didn't even bother trying us again?"

"Yeah, I guess," Tyson said, but he'd perked up a bit. "You don't think we'd get the triad?"

Nate snorted. "I really hope not because if I have to put up with you two making heart eyes at each other  _ in the Drift _ , I'm moving back to Halifax." He said it very softly, and Tyson was grinning as he elbowed his partner. "Seriously, though. That was just good hockey.”

Tyson nudged his partner. “You could be right. I think the babies are gonna get the triad, and they'll  _ all  _ make heart eyes at each other." He nudged his chin in the direction of Comphs and Kerfy, who were talking to one of the new recruits, a kid with curlier hair than Tyson's and crooked grin. "I don't think Comphs has taken his eyes off that kid."

The resurfacer was done and the officers had finished convening. "Compher, Jost," Bednar called out and the redhead stepped onto the ice with his new friend. It took them close to fifteen minutes to score at all, and both were bent over and breathing heavily by the time they were done.

"Wow. I should have put money on that," Tyson said, and Nate laughed as Bednar called Kerfoot and Jost to the dot.

"I wouldn't have taken a bet," Nate replied.

"Yeah but I bet EJ would have been glad to lose money to me," the brunet said, loudly enough for the toothless blond to hear.

EJ snorted. "Watch it; you'll probably be stuck with me when Landy steals your boy there."

"Nah, I promised I wouldn't," Gabe replied, winking at Tyson, who promptly turned pink. "It'd be a real shame to break them up."

Nate let the chirping wash over him as he watched the kids play. Even though he hadn't chosen hockey in the end, it was always relaxing just to watch people play. Kerfy and Jost weren't quite as breakeven as Comphs and Jost had been, but Nate saw bits of the same thing he'd had with Tyson the very first time: ridiculous plays that the other guy couldn't anticipate being countered, skates starting to move in tandem.

Nate looked up to see Gabe watching him. The Swede winked again. "See? Nothing to worry about."

It was a week before they announced the results and Tyson was a nervous wreck for most of it. Nate stopped using logic two days in and just bombarded him with comfort food (ice cream) and jokes about what the others were up to. "EJ got the rare three-way bootlace trip," he said, since their toothless friend's antics were usually good for at least a smile. "Kerfy, Comphs, and Josty. Only Comphs kept his feet."

Instead of smiling, Tyson looked pensive. Seeing Nate's worry, he admitted, "I wouldn't have minded getting the trio."

"Dude, that would have meant abandoning Canine Azure," Nate said, shocked. "She's our  _ baby _ . We've been customizing her since I got to Victoria and they built the Conn Pod just for us! You said you never wanted to give her up."

"Yeah, I know. It would have been fun to  _ try _ , you know?"

"I mean... yeah? I guess?" Nate replied. "Look, if this is about Gabe, we really aren't that compatible. Watch our feet the next time we play shinny. Or watch the puppies any time they walk anywhere together."

"Which is all the time because wow are they not subtle," Tyson said, his mood finally lightening. "JT came to lunch with sex hair yesterday. Blatant and completely avoidable sex hair. Someone there owns a brush, dude, c'mon."

Nate relaxed as his partner chirped his way back to normal. Usually he was the moody one of the pair, but the insertion of a handsome Swedish hockey god into their lives had thrown off the balance. Since Gabe obviously wanted to be friends with both of them and he and Nate worked great together in the leadership class (he had not told Tyson this), it was clearly gonna be a thing for awhile.

Nate was just glad one of them was staying composed, because once Gabe had figured out that Nate and Tys weren't partners outside of the Drift, he'd made it clear that Tyson's interest was reciprocated. Gabe still flirted with Nate in general, but it was clear Tyson was his main target. Tyson wasn't quite oblivious, but he was having a hard time handling the attention.

"Hey, Nate?" His partner's voice was pensive again. "You can always tell me to shut up about Gabe."

Nate snorted. "It's seriously fine, dude," he said. "I tell you to shut up all the time. Gabe's great, you haven't brought it into the Drift again, it's all good."

"You're pretty awesome too," Tyson said, and Nate poked his head down. Tyson was blushing. "I just didn't want you to feel underappreciated."

Nate laughed and ruffled Tyson's hair. "Thanks, man, but I never do around you, you know."

"Really?" Tyson was still pink. "I mean, that's good, but I figured you always felt like a third wheel."

"Nah, we're partners," Nate said, grinning. "I'm gonna get in your head sooner or later so it's not like you can hide anything." He softened as Tyson was still pink. "Thanks, though. One thing the last trial proved is that we're always gonna be solid. Maybe Bedsy will use us as a demonstration tomorrow, since he wants to sort out the rest of the pairs."

"That'd be fun," Tyson admitted. "I think EJ thinks we're secretly practicing so we look cooler."

"I have no idea how the hell you would practice that slide move you did last time," Nate laughed. "That was just dumb luck."

"Says you," Tyson chirped, laughing back. "That was  _ finesse _ , thank you."

"Finessed bullshit, a Tyson Barrie special," Nate chirped.

Tyson hit him with his pillow. "Says you," he said. "C'mon, they're gonna yell at us for missing lights-out AGAIN."

"What are we, twelve?" Nate grumbled, but he hauled himself back up to his bunk and turned off the lights. "I think grown-ass adults are allowed to decide how much sleep they need."

"Says the man who bitches if he gets less than eight hours," Tyson said fondly. "You are so not a morning person, don't even lie. G'night, Nate."

"Night, Tys."

They all met at the ice for the announcements. Bednar had his usual clipboard and impassive expression as the twenty-odd recruits filed in and sat down. "I asked you all to be here in full skating gear because we may need to re-run some of you," he said, ignoring the groans. "Look, we want you out in the field as much as you wanna be there, but it's not going to do shit if your neural handshakes aren't steady enough. One more round through the trials for some of the borderline cases and then we can start Jaeger test runs in less than a week."

"What about the rest of us?" Cole asked, earning an elbow from his partner, Calvert. "Like he's gonna break us up."

"I might if you don't can the attitude," Bednar said mildly, and Cole sat back. "I'd rather have six reasonable pairs I can put out than two and a half great ones and three guys sitting on the sideline, so there may be some shakeups."

Nate felt Tyson stiffen next to him, but he didn't dare look over. They were fine, they were solid. They had the best score in neural handshake trials ever recorded in Victoria, and they won the 2v2 video game tourney every month. There was breaking up a good pair like Cole and Calvert to make two decent ones and then there was fucking with perfection, which Bednar wouldn't dare do. Dom and Helene would kill him, for one thing.

Bednar looked at his clipboard, his assistants, and then right at Nate. "Mackinnon, Barrie. Get out here and show these jokers what we're looking for."

That got whoops of surprise and encouragement from their friends and both were grinning as they took off their skate guards and met at center ice. "Don't make me look too good," Nate chirped, and Tyson laughed.

"Try and keep up," he retorted, and then there was the whistle and hockey. Not even the cheers and chirps from the audience registered as soon as the puck dropped.

Nate was normally terrible at faceoffs, one of his few hockey weaknesses, but he won against Tyson. This didn't mean an easy goal; Tyson stuck to him like a burr and Nate shanked more shots than he got cleanly. Tyson was less fluid as a skater but persistent and excellent at mirroring Nate's movement enough to keep the taller man off-balance.

Tyson scored first, off a hard slapper that he let fly right at the top of the circle. Nate was too startled by the deceptive speed to even attempt to block it, and he was glad he hadn't; it was just one goal and he liked his shins intact. Nate scored next, off a dirty little wrister that squeaked by the brunet as they tussled in the crease.

Nate lost the next faceoff but knocked Tyson's stick loose in the process of wrestling the puck back. He heard a whistle from someone as he slid up under his partner's check and came away cleanly, scoring from behind the blue line with a slapshot he  _ had _ been practicing. Tyson found the breath to laugh at this, and they skated back to the line in perfect tandem, skates moving together without conscious thought. They bumped gloves gently at the dot, a moment of re-centering before the next whistle.

Nate won the faceoff, but Tyson did some kind of fancy thing with his skates to tangle it up and flicked it back over to his stick. Nate felt them sync up again as he was trying to mirror his partner to the goal line, playing goalie in anticipation of what Tyson was going to do, rather than what he was currently doing. He fended off two quick shots, but the third squeaked through his five-hole. "Never woulda worked if I had pads," he gasped as they skated to the line again.

"You don't, though," Tyson said, his usual grin a bit more savage in competition. "Good thing you're not a real goalie."

The next set was nothing but volleying back and forth, fighting along the boards for possession and the other man always being in the way of any shot, up and down the ice. They were both getting winded and Nate knew it would come down to who had the last breath, as it had the first time, like it did  _ every _ time. This time it was Nate, still stinging a bit from losing to Gabe a week ago, who managed to find that last spurt of energy to flip the puck past an exhausted Tyson.

They both bent double as soon as the double whistle sounded, massaging tired thighs and breathing heavily. Nate glanced up and met Tyson's eyes. His partner was grinning again, but it was soft. He reached up a shaky glove to bump, and Nate bumped it. "What the fuck was that slapshot?" Tyson chirped, still breathless. "I thought you didn't have one."

Nate laughed. "I said it wasn't  _ good _ ; do you think that would have beaten a halfway-competent goalie?"

The others were applauding, and Bednar let it go on for a bit before he waved his hands for silence. "Yes, that was some good hockey," he said. "But did you actually see what I wanted you to watch for? I didn't bother to run Mackinnon and Barrie last week because they are so in sync I don't need to anymore."

"So why did you run me with Johnson?" Tyson said, and Nate elbowed him.

"Mostly because you talk back like that," Bednar retorted, but he was grinning. "But also because you  _ do  _ have some compatibility. It's not about the hockey, it's about how you interact. Other facilities use dojos or other physical training. We're in Canada, so we did what came naturally." That got laughs. "So, with that in mind, we're gonna run a couple of different pairs, and yes, we will try the trios you've all been gossiping about." He tweeted his whistle and called out several names to re-do the pairs. Gabe was one, but Nate and Tyson were waved off the ice.

They sat next to each other on the much-denuded bench, nearly touching. "You think he'll try us when he does the trio?" Tyson said in an undertone.

"I think so, or he wouldn't have run us both against Gabe," Nate replied just as softly. "You heard him: we're so solid he had no real reason to try either of us with anyone else."

Kerfy and Comphs flopped down behind them with their new friend. "I think we're gonna get it," Comphs said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, almost definitely, but he said he was gonna try multiple people from the start," Nate replied with a shrug. "It'll be fun to try it out anyway." 

Kerfy elbowed Comphs. "Don't eavesdrop, dude. That's not cool."

"Yeah you're setting a bad example for the kid," Tyson joked, and Josty snorted. "Got a problem, Tyson Jr.?"

Nate cackled as the kid looked affronted, then nudged Tyson as Gabe skated to center with EJ. "You think they really will get stuck together?"

"They might; they were doing that skate thing yesterday a bit, and EJ isn't what you'd call a fancy skater." They watched as Gabe did score his first two goals quickly, but then it got physical. "They might put him with one of the kids, though. Gabe, I mean. He's pretty chill, you know?"

"Probably why Bednar wanted to run them again; he did okay with that big kid over there as well," Nate said, nodding at a blond who was around EJ's height but had all his teeth and looked like he'd be a lot broader when he filled out. "Rantanen, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, they were pretty good, too. Gabe was tired by then; Bednar really wants him to find a partner," Tyson said. "I think these three and Calvert were the only ones run as much," he added, nodding at the trio on Nate's other side, who nodded back.

The final whistle sounded and Gabe poked EJ with his stick. "I'm gonna have a black eye from that elbow, asshole," he said, but didn't sound genuinely angry, just chirpy. 

"I've got parts bruised that aren't my eye," EJ chirped back.

"TMI!" Tyson shouted before the other could continue, and EJ laughed, coming over to annoy Tyson while Bednar and his assistants checked clipboards.

Gabe got a breather as well as Bednar ran Cole with Calvert and then Calvy with Z. Then: "Rantanen, Landeskog," Bednar called,.

Gabe whooshed out a breath, brushing between Nate and Tyson when he stepped down. Nate felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over at Tyson, who was still but not more than faintly pink. "Good luck," Tyson said and got another pat. 

"What was that?" Comphs said, nudging Tyson.

"He wants a Drift partner again, dude, wouldn't you?" Tyson said. "We only get like, weekly Jaeger time, but it's better than  _ nothing _ ."

Comphs nodded, looking back at the ice where Gabe and Rantanen were facing off. "Yeah, okay. Yeah. What happened to his other partner?"

"If he hasn't said, it's not our place to," Nate said, and Tyson nodded. "He's not here, which is the important bit." When he saw how green Comphs and Josty were, Nate sighed. "He's  _ alive _ , just not  _ here _ ."

"Oh, okay. Accidents happen, you know," Comphs said, and Nate nodded. "I mean I didn't think to ask until just now; he seems so chill."

"He is chill," Tyson said. "He's also missing being in a Jaeger."

"Is it true you two already have a custom Conn Pod?" Josty asked, leaning forward again.

Nate grinned. "Sure do. Canine Azure is custom from top to toe for us by now."

"How'd you manage  _ that _ ?" Kerfy asked, envy plain on his face. "You're still cadets, just like us."

"Yeah, but we've been here longer and we used to help out the mechanics," Tyson said. "They like us." He sucked in a breath at a particularly hard crunch between Gabe and his new dance partner along the boards. "They're pretty close," Tyson said, glancing at Bednar, who was watching intently. "He might not get stuck with EJ after all."

"Oh no whatever shall I do," EJ intoned, flopping down dramatically. "You sound like one of the wonks. Thinking of going for officer someday, Tys?"

"I mean I was, but apparently I didn't cross all my i's on the forms," Tyson retorted, sounding casual enough. Nate, still almost touching him, felt the tension in his body and saw the hand that was between them curl up into a fist. "I have to wait another two months to submit again."

"One month, now," Nate reminded him, hoping to help him relax a bit without making it obvious. "It's been a month."

"The class started two weeks ago," EJ objected.

"The class did, yeah," Nate said. "Selection was before that, and it was a month ago." His tone was slightly sharp, because he could tell EJ was poking Tyson on purpose, probably because he was bored. "Surprised they let  _ you  _ in after the glitter thing."

"Z didn't actually kill me, or even threaten to," EJ replied, easing back a bit physically as well as conversationally. "And Willy thought the fish was funny."

"Willy goes along with just about everything," Tyson retorted. "It wasn't a real fish," he added to the trio next to him. "It was just a stuffed toy."

"Willy would have also been okay with a real fish because see above," Nate added, and EJ laughed.

"I'm not  _ that _ bad," he scoffed. “Unless they deserve it, and Willy never would." They all whooped as Rantanen deked Gabe backwards and scored a beautiful goal. "You might be right, though, Tys. I think I'm gonna end up stealing Calvy from Cole."

Gabe and Rantanen finished up and the Swede gestured for the Finn to follow him back to the cluster. "Guys, this is Mikko," he said. "Mikko, the two in front are Nate and Tyson, the ginger is Comphs, and his two boyfriends are Kerfy and Josty," Gabe pointed to everyone in turn and ignored the sputtering from the trio. " _ This  _ asshole is EJ," he added with a laugh as EJ leaned on his shoulder. "Personal space, man."

Mikko nodded, a bit shyly. "Also call me Rants," he offered, and the guys all nodded. Nate wasn't surprised when Gabe dropped next to him, a warm presence that was growing more familiar the longer they spent together. "Partners?" Mikko asked, sitting behind them where EJ had been.

"Tys and I are, yeah," Nate said. "And Kerfy and Comphs are right now, but we figure they're gonna end up with the trio with Josty." EJ slid to the faceoff dot across from Calvert, proving that EJ wasn't unobservant. "EJ and Gabe don't have partners right now; EJ's got medical'd out and Gabe's left." He leaned into Gabe a bit, almost instinctively, as the blond stiffened momentarily. A hand dropped onto his as Gabe leaned back, brushing his fingers for a second.

"Okay," Mikko nodded again, more certainly. "Who is trouble?"

"EJ," everyone said in a chorus, and Gabe laughed, straightening all the way back up. "Z is as well, don't let him fool you," the Swede added, nodding down the bench at the tall Russian, who was talking to some of the other new recruits. "It'd serve them right if they got paired, but they're not compatible at all."

"But they both are with Calvy; it's weird," Tyson said, eyes on EJ so he didn't see the approving look Gabe gave him. "I don't blame Bednar for running them all again."

"And us?" Gabe teased, and Tyson shrugged. "You think he'll run us anyway, with the trio set?"

"Yeah, no reason not to," Tyson said. This was the most relaxed Nate had seen his partner around Gabe, and he wondered if being between them was helping. Both of them were leaning closer, possibly subconsciously, pressing into him on either side as they talked. It was nice. "If they can run more than one, that frees up a regular Jaeger for someone else."

Nate was shaken out of his pleasure that Tyson was finally not being ridiculous by that. "You mean  _ our _ Jaeger," he said, trying not to sound accusative. He must have failed because Tyson glanced at him.

"I guess? I mean they've made so many mods to Canine Azure they could maybe fix her up again?" He sounded surprised by how hurt Nate was. "We're talking hypotheticals, man."

Nate tried to relax; Drift partners had these moments when they weren't quite on the same page, and it was jarring but normal. They weren't the same person after all. Gabe leaned into him a bit more, maybe as a repayment for Nate doing the same earlier. Tyson reached between them and grabbed Nate's hand momentarily. "Sorry," Nate muttered, looking down.

"It's fine, I'm attached, too," Tyson said gently. "If it comes up, we'll make them mod Azure again, okay?" Nate nodded, looking up as Bednar blew the double whistle signifying the end of the trial.

Everyone sat straighter and acted like they'd been paying attention, though Nate knew for a fact Mikko and Josty had been up to some mischief behind him. "All right, the other officers are going to go over the results. While they're doing that, we'll run the trio trials. Pay attention, because this is gonna be complicated."

The gist was that they'd each stand on one of the center lines and the middle guy would get the puck to start. He'd pass it back and the guy who got the pass would drive to the net, with the other two now on defense. The drill was over when each of them had shot on both nets, but it was up to them to accomplish this efficiently. Nate, Tyson and Gabe went first. "Are we allowed to discuss our approach beforehand?" Tyson asked. "The others will get the chance."

Bednar looked impressed instead of annoyed by the question. "Five minutes," he said, and started his stopwatch.

"Whiteboard?" Gabe asked, and one was handed over with a marker. "Okay, I think we should alternate nets," he said, making some dots on the lines. 

Nate said, "I've got this," and labeled the dots A, B, and C. "B passes back to C going left and then A gets the puck in the middle and passes back to B going right. If we keep alternating like that we'll get all three in the minimum amount of rotations."

"Assuming we hit the net," Tyson said with a grin, and Nate elbowed him.

Gabe handed the whiteboard and marker back over and they took their places, with Nate in the middle. There were some fumbles as they got used to the pattern, but they smoothed out after the first full rotation. Nate, now that he knew what the officers wanted to see, knew they weren't completely in sync. All three of them were good enough at hockey that they did the drill with fluidity, but there were bobbled passes and he tangled Gabe and Tyson up in each other when he was on offense. Bednar blew the whistle twice when Gabe, the last in the rotation, scored his last goal, which actually went in the net as he'd completely fooled Tyson and outmuscled Nate.

"Good!" Bednar said. "That was enough for the rest of you to get the idea, yeah?" At the chorus of affirmative answers, the sergeant chuckled. "You three can hit the showers if you want; you're done."

Nate and Tyson didn't need to look at each other to know what the other was thinking, so close the drill had been to the Drift; they looked at Gabe instead. Gabe laughed and led the way back to the bench. "I wanna see this anyway," he said as Compher, Jost, and Kerfoot skated to their lines.

"Oh we are so not getting it," Nate said five minutes later, in awe at the coordination between the kids. "Like, at all."

Tyson sighed, "Yeah, no we are definitely not," and Nate glanced at him. "It might have been fun to try."

"Sure," Nate said, more affably than earlier. "That drill was pretty fun, to be honest."

EJ overheard this and said, "Spare us. You think all hockey is fun."

"Nah, he's right," Tyson said. "It was way more fun than the usual thing because you had to think about what two other people are doing and what happens to the puck next." He elbowed Nate gently. "Or this one is having an effect on me."

"Oh he definitely is," Gabe said with a laugh. "Not disagreeing with either of you, though. That was intense."

After the double whistle sounded, Gabe stood up and stretched. "Okay, well, now that we've been completely eliminated, I am gonna hit the showers."

"Peacock," EJ said. "You just don't like being all sweaty."

"It's a good look on him," Tyson said without really thinking, then turned bright red. 

Gabe laughed before things could get awkward. "See? I'm prettier than you are no matter what, EJ," he said easily, and winked at Nate and Tyson before clomping back to the locker room.

"You gonna follow him, then?" EJ said and was speared by a glare from Nate. "Okay, okay, just kidding." He ruffled Tyson's hair and then sighed. "You're all sweaty, dude."

Tyson laughed, his color returning to normal. “Uh, yeah. Unlike you I actually had to do some work.”

EJ mock-pouted but let Tyson have the point. They chirped back and forth for a bit but then Nate sighed, “Okay now that it’s less awkward I do need my shower.”

Tyson laughed. “I was wondering how long you’d hold out,” he said. “We were gonna go talk to Dom and Helene about the systems test they’re running tomorrow, too.” He waved at EJ and the others and they headed in.

  
  


Later, as they were rummaging for their greasy mechanic clothes, Nate said, ”Would you really have given up Canine Azure if we’d gotten the trio?”

Tyson blinked. “There was like, no chance whatsoever.”

“Yeah but you keep bringing it up,” Nate replied. “I like Gabe but we picked our Jaeger the day we met.”

Tyson blinked several times. “Oh." He pulled his shirt on and stood next to his partner. "I’m sorry, dude, I didn’t mean to make it sound like Canine Azure isn’t special to me. She’s ours and has been since we saw her. Trying out the trio with Gabe would never change that.” He patted Nate on the shoulder. “Are you okay, bud? You’ve been tense all day.”

Nate shook his head. “I dunno what’s up. Maybe it’s just the stress of all the extra trials and compatibility stuff this week. Like, we’re solid and always will be but I hope Gabe ends up with a partner who won’t ditch him and like. I’m happy that the kids won’t be split up, you know?”

Tyson nodded. “You’re an enormous softie, got it,” he teased, and Nate snorted. Softly, Tyson added, “I hope it all works out too, Nate.”

“Why did Dom and Helene wanna see us anyway?” Nate asked, shaking them out of the moment before it got weird.

“Harness adjustments,” Tyson replied. “I also wanted to see if they adapted the movement after that conversation you and Dom had a fortnight ago about changing the stride.”

“Please don’t tell EJ I suggested it unless it becomes standard,” Nate said with a short laugh. “He thinks I’m bad enough about hockey as it is.”

“Says the man who named every training bot he got after a racehorse and said he’d be happier if his Jaeger had four legs,” Tyson scoffed. “I think it’s a great idea since Jaegers mostly fight in the water and a glide moves through more smoothly.”

They moved into the depths of the Shatterdome, the maintenance corridors and service exits familiar in a different way than the training rooms and the rink. This belonged to Nate and Tyson, which settled the last of Nate’s unease. This was something they’d shared even before Drifting the first time, and the shared memory of hanging out and watching the Lee twins work on Canine Azure that first day was one they always Drifted to together.

Dom met them at the Conn Pod, suspended high above the main body of the Jaeger. “There’re my lads!” he said. “Can’t split you two up, can they?”

“They’ve given up even trying,” Tyson agreed. “Are we clear for the full run tomorrow?”

"Just about. We need to make sure the final measurements are correct on your harness adjustments." That was Helene. "Go get changed."

"She was worried?" Nate said to Dom, lingering as Tyson hung up his jacket and went back to the changing room.

Dom grinned. "Only you or Tys would have noticed," he said. "Yeah, she heard about the trio." He saw Tyson shoot Nate a guilty look. "You were, too."

"A bit," Nate admitted. "Canine Azure is ours and yours. It would feel weird if anyone else got involved, you know?"

Dom nodded. "Helene said the same thing.  _ I _ wanna see this Swedish dreamboat everyone keeps going on about." Nate laughed and the mechanic added, "Get back there and get your suit on before she yells at us for gossiping. I finally got your new treads put in."

They couldn't even accidentally start up Canine Azure unless the Conn Pod was attached to the body so Helene had them run through a full range of motions in the newly-adjusted harnesses. Nate grunted with approval as he slid forward instead of clomping in the new treads. “This feels more natural,” he said, as he pushed off like he was on skates.

Dom laughed. “If you two decide that you wanna go into R&D with us, we'll see if they let you keep the Jaeger."

Nate shrugged. Even without the active Drift connection, Tyson shrugged in unison. "We'll try this first. Seems a waste to get Canine Azure up to spec without doing what she was made for," Tyson said. "The harness is a  _ lot _ better, Helene, thank you," he added to the engineer, who smiled.

"I notice you both relaxing into it automatically again," Helene said. She hesitated, then said, "I'm glad we're keeping you, since you apparently noticed I was worried."

Nate grinned. "Hey, I was, too. Can't have Dom breaking his heart over Gabe." He unclamped his boots from the new treads. "We'd probably better get back for dinner," he said. "I miss being able to hang down here with you guys for meals."

"When you graduate you can do whatever the hell you want," Dom said. "Go be good little cadets so that day comes sooner rather than later."

The next morning, there was an announcement as Nate and Tyson were dressing for their systems trial. "Attention, all cadets: The final results of the trials are in and will be posted on the doors to the rink. If your partner has changed, report to the quartermaster for new room assignments."

Tyson stared in the direction of the rink. "There's no reason for us to check," he said. "The kids got the trio and we're solid. We need to get down to Canine Azure and get ready for the systems test."

"If the quartermaster is taking room assignments now that means he hasn't gotten the control room assigned," Nate returned. "I mean we can always hope we see an officer and ask, but I don't want another failed test because we can't concentrate."

"Right, you're absolutely right," Tyson said. "Good thinking."

"And we can support Gabe," Nate added quietly, and Tyson nodded, even though he probably hadn't heard that with his ears. More loudly, he added, "His partner's probably moving rather than him doing it, so maybe he can come down and see Azure."

"I'd like that," Tyson admitted. They walked in step down to the rink doors.

"What are you assholes doing here?" EJ said, wrapping an arm around each of them and dragging them along. "You don't need the results."

"It's this thing called having friends and caring about their lives too," Tyson said, squirming loose and fixing his hair. "Even you, when you're not being a total jerk."

"Aw, I'm touched," EJ said. "Because you're totally here for  _ me _ ." He grinned and added, "You guys are hopeless. He's over there." He pointed to Gabe, who was waiting for the crush to clear out a bit, looking apprehensive.

"Well who'd you get?" Tyson demanded, the pigheadedness that Nate was actually really fond of showing through. "We weren't kidding about caring about what happens to you, jerkface, even if it means you're gonna start making up outrageous lies about how much better your Jaeger is than Azure."

Nate laughed at the look of surprise on EJ's face. "You wouldn't be chirping us if you hadn't checked yet. I've been on the other side of those elbows, dude; a line wouldn't stop you."

"Okay,  _ fine _ . I retract at least part of my snarky remark," EJ said, but he looked affectionate rather than annoyed. "Big Tys was  _ wrong _ . I actually got one of the new kids, Girard. Calvy and Cole survived."

Tyson side-eyed Nate, who was snickering at the nickname. "I didn't see you with Girard; I went around with him twice the first day."

"You were preoccupied," EJ said with a smirk. "Go check on your boy; he's spotted you and he looks lost." He shoved Tyson in Gabe's direction.

"I take it this means Josty's Little Tys?" Nate couldn't help but ask, and EJ laughed as Tyson dragged his partner away. "Oh come on, it's funny," Nate said.

"What's funny?" Gabe asked, with a passable attempt at his usual brilliant smile.

"Tys has a new nickname," Nate said, sidling out of elbowing range; Gabe needed cheering up. The Swede laughed when Nate explained and Nate gave Tyson a smug look as Gabe pushed forward to see the list. "So, what's the news?" Nate asked when Gabe returned.

"Mikko, as I more or less expected," Gabe said, much more relaxed. "He's already like an annoying little brother."

Nate laughed as he saw Mikko, who was studiously ignoring all of them, stiffen. "Unlike EJ, who would have been an annoying older brother," he said, and Mikko sighed. "I'm spotting a trend, Gabe, and it's not them."

"Are you calling me annoying?" Gabe said, giving Nate a wide-eyed innocent face that should not have been so effective after living with Tyson "Puppy Eyes" Barrie. 

Puppy Eyes himself decided to rescue his partner. "Hey, so you don't have to move your stuff, right?"

Gabe blinked. "Nah, Mikko's moving in. Why?"

"We have a systems test today and we thought you'd like to see our Jaeger," Tyson said, as if it had been all his idea. Nate let it pass and merely nodded in confirmation when Gabe looked at him. "Bednar doesn't mind visitors as long as you stay out of the way, and our techs are amazing."

"Dom specifically said he wanted to meet you," Nate added, and Tyson grinned. 

Gabe's smile was almost blinding. "Yeah! Yeah, that sounds awesome. Thanks for the invite."

"We'll see you around 1-ish, then," Tyson said. 

As soon as they got out of earshot, Nate said, "Look at you. You're barely even blushing."

Tyson laughed. "Yeah, but now you are, and you can't blame the Drift yet." He bumped shoulders with Nate. "We won't fuck it up this time, right?"

"Absolutely not," Nate agreed.

Gabe showed up in the command center as Nate and Tyson were getting the last pieces bolted onto their suits, so they saw him as soon as they got in the Conn Pod. Bednar, standing in his usual position behind Halstead, looked much more relaxed than he had during the first attempt, probably pleased about the new pairs and his new trio. "Gentlemen, as you can tell we're doing a full, integrated systems test today. The Lees have put a lot of work into the movement and the uplink and we want to make sure it all functions like we want it to."

Nate and Tyson exchanged glances, equal parts excitement and trepidation. Helene, who was part of the team that hooked them into their harnesses, murmured, "Have fun showing off for the boyfriend," and both turned beet red. Helene laughed and patted Nate on the shoulder. "Bednar wouldn't do this if he was worried, no matter how good a mood he's in, and we've put in the failsafe for the weapons system so it's not like you can blow anyone up."

"Thank you for that," Tyson said. "Not sure why those work in test mode anyway."

Helene shrugged as she finished making sure they were both secure. "You've got to remember that the Jaeger Program was built on the fly. Safety protocols are always the last thing most people think of in an emergency." She sounded disapproving, and the partners both laughed. "Luckily, you two have me instead of most people."

"Are we ready to begin?" Bednar asked. He was smiling slightly as well, so clearly they weren't in a hurry today. Helene gave him the thumbs up, patted both guys again in encouragement, and left the Conn Pod with her assistants.

Nate and Tyson exchanged another look, this time fully anticipatory. "Let's do this," Nate said, and Tyson echoed him. 

"Halstead, initiate Pilot to Pilot Protocol," Bednar said in response, and Halstead gave the affirmative. The audio on Canine Azure responded with an automated "Pilot-to-Pilot Protocol engaged" message and Nate settled in to embrace the Drift. 

This time, they settled in together. "Neural Handshake holding strong and steady," Halstead announced. Nate felt Tyson again, but instead of lust and headaches he got the feel of skates cutting through fresh ice, the sound of a stick on a puck, and their first sight of Canine Azure after she'd gotten the paint job that had given her the name. Huge, metallic blue robot that was theirs even before they'd been paired. When he saw that last, Nate knew they'd Drifted perfectly. 

Their confirmation move was a variation on Nate's favorite goal celly: the hangar wasn't QUITE big enough for them to get all the way down to one knee, but they bent a bit and pumped their right fist. There was a sense of relaxation, both in the Conn Pod and the command center. "We have a successful connection," Halstead said. "What next, sir?"

"Gentlemen, the Lees have made improvements to your movement system that they believe would be beneficial to the program as a whole, so we're going to take you outside," Bednar said, eliciting noises of surprise from everyone except, Nate noted with an amused thought to Tyson, Dom and Helene. The partners gave their affirmative and waited for the massive sleigh to dolly them out to the bay they used for practice.

As they did, Nate rested in the Drift. Tyson was still a very restful person to share a mind with, which would probably surprise a lot of people who saw only the high-energy front he put out in the physical world. Of course, Nate was comfortable with high-energy; his childhood best friend was the same way. Snippets wandered through, and this deep, it was hard to tell whose were whose. They always had some shared memories that they liked particularly to visit, like that first visit to Canine Azure, before she was even named. 

"CA-2904, designation Canine Alpha, ready for movement test," Nate heard Halstead's voice through the calm Drift fog. As he was preparing to come back to front, a vague, dreamy thought whispered through. The three of them, together. Him, Gabe, and Tyson. Hmm.

Tyson was giving him a thoughtful look as they dropped into the bay, and Nate gave him the mental equivalent of a shrug. Before they could get mired in thoughts of whipped cream again, Nate said, "Canine Azure, ready on our end," and heard Tyson's agreement. "What do you want us to do?"

"Mister Lee tells me that he's adjusted your tread to provide more of a skating glide, at your suggestion," Bednar replied, and Nate sighed as he heard Gabe laugh, quickly stifled, probably at a look from Helene. "Give me a few laps of the bay, please," Bednar continued, unruffled.

"I am never gonna hear the end of this now," Nate commented when he'd given the affirmative and switched off his comms again.

Tyson laughed, and it was great when you made your Drift partner laugh, because you could definitely feel the affection in it rather than mockery. "You push off first; I usually lead with my left foot," Tys said instead of commenting on the likelihood of someone not telling EJ about this, which was nil.

Nate took a deep breath; when he'd mentioned this offhand to Dom, he hadn't expected them to do it in front of what had looked like most of Victoria command plus Gabe. He felt another wave of warm reassurance from Tyson. "Clockwise?" he asked and then they pushed off. 

Canine Azure didn't have skates and they weren't on ice, so it was a modified glide rather than a full one, but they could feel the difference immediately. "Okay this is awesome," Tyson said out loud, making sure he said it to Command, which earned him a smile and warm fuzzies from Nate. "This is so much easier than trying to walk through water."

"Should we add some sort of propulsion to the feet?" Dom asked. "We could swap between land and sea modes, but ideally we don't want you being on land if we can help it."

"If you added something that made it feel more like skates, you wouldn't have to," Gabe put in, causing Nate and Tyson to exchange surprised glances. It was possible he was in the command center for more reasons than just their casual invitation. "This looks awesome, Nate."

A complicated surge of emotions in the Drift, between Nate's bashful surprise and Tyson's combination of pride and a sharp spike of jealousy. The jealousy gave Nate pause because it wasn't aimed at him, but at Gabe. "Tyson helped me hash it out before we took it to Dom," he said, pretty much on autopilot as he tried to process that. Leadership thing again maybe, but no. He could tell as soon as he thought that it was wrong. He raised an inquiring eyebrow at Tyson as they kept skate-walking, their muscle memory making it so they didn't have to think about movement.

"We should try the full celly move since we're gliding and we have space out here," Tyson said out loud instead of answering the silent query. Nate sighed but agreed readily. 

It was awesome, of course it was awesome. Everything they did together was. Nate got that spike again, and gave Tyson a significantly more pointed eyebrow. He reached over and muted both their comms. "We're gonna talk about this when we're done," he said, and it wasn't a question.

Tyson sighed but didn't argue. He flipped comms back on. "How do we look, Command?" he asked, with a reasonable imitation of his usual high spirits. 

"Looking great," Halstead said, and his cheer was definitely genuine, which brightened the partners up. "Glide on back in here so your team can run some wear tests and you can hit the showers."

The fact that Halstead was giving the orders meant Bednar was already looking over the data. This was a great sign. "Well, at least EJ will have to try the system out after he makes fun of me for making my Jaeger more like a hockey player," Nate sighed dramatically. He realized comms were still open when he heard Gabe laugh again, joined this time by both Lees, from the sound of it. 

Tyson was all amusement this time, grinning at his partner. "You're a genius, Nate. Deal with it. Besides, this will be smoother on EJ's terrible knee."

"There's a thought," Halstead agreed. "When the sergeant gets back, I may suggest they try it next."

"Not in this Jaeger," Dom, his sister, and both pilots said in unison, and Gabe laughed some more. Dom continued, "I'll be happy to help with the improvements in another Jaeger, but we're not letting anyone but those two pilot this one." There was an unsaid "ever" at the bottom of that statement that gave Nate and Tys the warm fuzzies again.

Halstead chuckled. "Noted. I'll get you in touch with another team; Johnson and Girard don't have a dedicated crew yet."

Nate and Tyson took one last quick glide around while they sorted that out, then returned to the hangar doors. "Genius, huh?" Nate said in an undertone, pleased.

Tyson laughed. "My very own hockey-slash-Jaeger genius, yep." You couldn't actually fistbump in a Jaeger for obvious reasons, but they'd worked out how to do it through the Drift. What Tyson sent instead, though, felt more like a hug, one of those bone-crunching hockey hugs after a good goal combined with so much affection and pride that Nate turned pink. "Just took everyone awhile to catch up," Tys added smugly. 

"Thanks," Nate said, and they eased back into the Drift together as they backed onto their dolly and waited for the helicopters to lift them back inside.

Gabe met them outside the changing room, grinning from ear to ear. "That was so awesome!" he said, wrapping an arm around each of them. "Seriously, you two are so good together." There was a bit of a hitch in how he said that and Nate, still tied into Tyson a bit, didn't even have to look at his partner as they both squeezed back.

"Glad you got to watch," Tyson said sincerely. "We were gonna just introduce you to Azure and the Lee twins, but this was so much better. Nate usually never shows off when he's not on the ice." He grinned as Nate got flustered. 

"EJ is still never gonna let me hear the end of it," Nate put in, and the other two laughed. 

"He might if it makes his knee feel better," Gabe said. He was relaxing between the two of them as they continued walking, neither making any effort to move away from him. "I'm looking forward to trying it myself."

"Man, I'm starving," Nate said. "We've got leave now but I don't know what I want."

"How about I take you both out?" Gabe suggested. When they both stared at him, he added, "I got to meet your Jaeger and see you work and that was really cool. Dinner is the least I can do."

Before Tyson could respond either way, Nate said, "Give us about half an hour to talk over some stuff between the two of us and we'll meet you at the gate?"

"Can we talk after?" Tyson begged. "You're hangry."

"Surprisingly, I'm not," Nate said mildly. "I will be if we don't wrap this up, so how about we go have that talk?"

Gabe looked from one to the other. "Dinner can wait," he said uncertainly. It was maybe the third time Nate had seen Gabe uncertain, and the first around them. 

"Nah, it's fine. Dinner sounds amazing. It probably won't even take that long, but I don't want you to wait too long in case this one gets pigheaded," Nate said, eliciting a sigh from Tyson.

Gabe's smile returned, though it was still less than the full wattage. "Okay. Half an hour and I'm holding you to it. Where do you want to go?"

"Surprise us," Tyson said, and Nate nodded.  _ That  _ got the full grin back. 

"Do we have to do this now?" Tyson asked without much hope as he closed the door.

"I mean, yeah," Nate said. "Also, if we're going out I'd like to change into something less... this," he said, gesturing to his grease-stained t-shirt and sweatpants. "Gabe's probably taking us somewhere classy."

"That did just happen," Tyson said. "He asked us  _ both _ out."

"Pretty specifically, yeah," Nate said. "Come on, Tys. What's up? I know you're in love with him." Nate took a minute because that made his brain pause. "But you were mad  _ at _ him when we were doing the movement tests."

"Yeah, because it took him way too long to realize how awesome you are," Tyson said in a burst, and Nate blinked at him. "Look, I do like him, he's super hot, but if he's just realizing you're more than just a hockey god we've got problems."

"Whoa, slow down. We're friends," Nate said, confused. "I mean, you're around when we hang out like 90% of the time, and I thought you were jealous of  _ me _ about the leadership class."

Frustration, jealousy and... sadness? Came through from Tyson; it was almost as if they hadn't left the Drift. Maybe they hadn't all the way; all the longtime partners said you always got something. "I was, I am, but not just you. Like, I want to be there  _ with _ you, you know? We've done almost everything together since we got here."

"Oh," Nate said blankly. "Tys, what's wrong? Our systems test was awesome. Things are going good with you and Gabe; he's obviously into you." He blinked as he got another wave of frustration. "What? They are."

"And he's inviting you along because of me?" Tyson said, patiently.

"Oh," Nate said again, and sat down on Tyson's bed, holding his shirt, a comfortable henley that nevertheless looked nice enough for dinner out. "Do you want me to stay? I can totally stay." He ignored the swoop in his stomach, knowing Tyson felt it but also knowing it didn't matter. "I don't wanna third wheel you or anything."

"No, you  _ idiot _ ," Tyson said, the frustration even stronger. "I want you there, too. But I want this to be a date."

"With both of us?" Nate said, as the sick feeling in his stomach transmuted into something else. "Tys, I wanna make sure I'm getting this right. You want to date  _ both _ me and Gabe?"

"Yes," Tyson said, looking down at his feet and cherry red. "Yes, I want to date both of you. At the same time. I don't  _ want _ to do things without you, Nate.  _ Anything _ , okay?"

"Oh," Nate said for the third time, not sure how to interpret all the feelings. "Okay maybe we should have waited a bit before we had this talk because I can't tell what's me and what's you." At Tyson's gesture of frustration and... rejection? "Okay that was you," he said. "I can't tell because I feel the same way, mostly."

Tyson looked up, startled. "Mostly?"

"Well you have this inferiority thing going on that we're definitely gonna need to deal with, but other than that," Nate said, and laughed as Tyson ricocheted between amazement and irritation. He stood up and wrapped his arms around his partner. They'd hugged plenty of times, but Nate actually let himself feel how nice Tys felt in his arms, especially shirtless, even frustrated. "Look, I don't know what Gabe is gonna think about getting us as a set, but I think he's probably at least willing to find out, since he invited both of us out to dinner."

"Maybe he's just-" Nate, tired of watching Tyson winding himself up and realizing he basically had permission to do this now, shut Tyson up by kissing him. For a moment Tyson was shocked and Nate almost pulled away, but the brunet made a noise and  _ grabbed _ Nate's ass, pushing Nate's mouth open with his tongue.

When they parted, they were both breathing heavily and Nate didn't let go of his partner. "Are we cool now? I'd like to kiss you some more, but I promised Gabe we wouldn't stand him up."

"Yeah," Tyson said, a bit dazed. "Yeah, we're cool. Better than cool. Amazing and awesome. I really should have done that sooner."

"I kissed you," Nate said with a grin, sitting down again to put on his nice boots. 

"Yeah," Tys agreed. "Yeah, you did. You're really good at that. I maybe should have encouraged you to do it, y'know. Earlier."

"Like last week when you were panicking for literally no reason?" Nate said, watching appreciatively as Tyson finally pulled on his shirt, an artfully distressed band t-shirt. "Yeah, it might have helped."

"Look, it wasn't  _ no _ reason," Tyson said, automatically, and Nate laughed at him again. Tyson pulled on his snapback with an injured air that was all for show as Nate, still laughing, opened the door. 

Gabe was waiting when they arrived, but he was joking around with EJ and didn't seem rushed. He visibly relaxed when he saw how happy Nate and Tyson were. Nate decided this whole "being open about your feelings" thing could continue when EJ wasn't around and gave Gabe a calm, "Hey," echoed by Tyson. 

Internally, Nate was wondering how the hell Gabe got away with wearing those pants in public; they fit his ass as if they'd been made around it. The plain white t-shirt just kept the focus on how fit Gabe was. Nate couldn't tell if these thoughts belonged to him or Tyson, and, in the moment, ceased to care.

"You're taking both of them out?" EJ joked. "Couldn't choose?"

"Dude, you didn't see them today," Gabe said with a lazy grin. "It would be a crime against humanity to split them up." Nate felt Tyson's anticipation and his own and he shrugged at EJ.

"You're just jealous because no one is wining and dining  _ you _ ," he said, and EJ laughed and gave him the finger. "Where we headed?"

"You said to surprise you, so it's a surprise," Gabe replied. 

"I grew up around here so good luck with that," Tyson retorted, and Gabe winked at him. Tyson, Nate noted with interest, was nowhere near as easily flustered by Gabe as he had been even earlier that day. Tyson caught the interest and rolled his eyes like,  _ Obviously. _ Nate grinned.

Gabe had ordered a car instead of driving himself, and Tyson's eyebrows raised at the address he gave the driver. "Don't spoil it," Gabe said to Tyson, looking at Nate, and Tyson laughed.

"Yeah, okay," he replied and settled in between the two. He refused to even play Twenty Questions with Nate. "It isn't that far."

Gabe leaned forward to mutter something to the driver, who grinned and nodded. "Let's get this show on the road."

Tyson sighed as they made a turn. "You're terrible," he told Gabe, who laughed. 

"What fun would it be if you knew and Nate didn't?" Gabe said. This made Nate laugh as well. "Sit back and enjoy the ride."

"We've only got leave until tomorrow," Tyson said, and Gabe gave him a  _ wicked _ smile Nate hadn't known was in his arsenal and Nate had to look out the window before he scandalized the driver. Tyson noticed that and Nate felt him press closer for a moment, ostensibly to look out the window. When Nate looked over his shoulder he saw Gabe swallow visibly. This time he looked back out to hide a smile.

"Right up here," the Swede said, his voice a bit husky. 

"The park?" Tyson said, looking ahead again.

"Yeah," Gabe said. "I figured you'd be onto me if we picked an actual restaurant."

"You have a cunning plan," Tyson accused. "Which means you've been planning this."

Gabe laughed. "Caught. Come on." The driver stopped the car in the parking lot and Gabe handed a fifty over the seat to them. "Thanks. If you need a favor back, you've got my number."

The driver laughed. "Good luck. I'll pop the trunk."

"The..." Tyson started, and Nate interrupted him.

"A picnic in the park?" he asked, grinning as Gabe and Tyson both got flustered. "That sounds amazing," he added sincerely, and Gabe smiled at him, a softer, hopeful smile than he'd seen. 

They followed him to the back of the car and saw blankets, a huge basket, the whole deal. When Tyson tried to open the top, Gabe slapped at his hand. "Let me have  _ some _ mysteries, please." He insisted on carrying the basket himself, but he let the other two carry the blankets and the umbrella. 

The day was one of those perfect mid-spring miracles, clear and sunny without being too hot, which made Nate wonder if Gabe had been waiting on the weather rather than them. There were blossoms and everything. Nate carried his armful of blankets as Gabe directed, wondering again at the planning involved. "You know we're both much less complicated than this, right?" he couldn't help saying, and Tyson laughed.

"Let him have fun," Tys said, and added, "I want to see where this is going."

"I figured if I took you somewhere in town, Tyson would critique the restaurant no matter what," Gabe chirped gently. "This was easier."

"I wouldn't critique  _ everything _ ," Tyson replied. "It's a big city and I've been in Ranger training for the last year; I haven't had everything."

"Thoughts for next time, then," Gabe said cheekily.

"One of us gets to pick next time," Nate retorted without thinking, and Gabe grinned at him before he could get nervous that he was playing it a bit too obvious.

"Deal. Blankets go here."

"Did you scout out the view, too?" Tyson chirped, amused.

"Well, and cleared out the pinecones," Gabe said easily. "It's no fun if you're sitting on hard or spiky stuff." They all spread out the blankets and Gabe propped up the umbrella. "There we go." He still wouldn't let Tyson touch the basket. "Selfies?"

Tyson sighed in frustration and Nate was so amused by that and curious about what Gabe was up to, he didn't even think about how hungry he still was. He leaned in for the selfie and Gabe put a hand on his ass. "Hey, dinner first," he said, and Gabe laughed.

"That sounds like a promise," he said, and Nate got the full experience of the wicked grin this time.

"Depends on dinner," Nate chirped back, even though he could feel his face heating up. Tyson was watching them both, eyes dark. The Drift rush was mostly worn off, so all Nate had of Tys right now was the usual background awareness. It was more the experience from earlier and from knowing Tyson that made him reach out a hand and squeeze Tyson's. "Let's eat."

This was not a lunchmeat and mayo on store bread picnic, and Gabe looked smug as Tyson's jaw dropped at the spread. A whole roasted chicken, vegetables, mashed potatoes, and a full salad. "Where do you even get food like this anymore?" Tyson asked, grabbing a local beer and staring at the bottle. 

"You have to know people, and I'm gonna be owing some favors for the rest of my natural life," Gabe admitted. "Totally worth it to see your faces. Dig in."

Gabe talked to them about their systems test and how awesome it had been to watch while the three of them ate dinner. He was watching them as he ate himself, eyes flickering between faces and hands; Nate and Tyson were brushing together more often than usual but not by a lot. "How long?" Nate asked as he finished up his chicken. "This had to have taken ages to plan." 

"I mean, less than you'd think; I'm pretty plugged into foodie culture around here by now," Gabe said, and then waved his hands when Nate stared at him. "Look, can we talk first? I don't wanna scare you off."

"Oh no a beautiful man has brought us food and beer in a romantic setting whatever shall we do?" Tys said, and Nate laughed. "You start running, Nate, and I'll distract him with my body." Gabe turned bright red at that, and Tyson laughed. "Finally got you!"

Gabe sighed. "I take it you two really are together?" He looked a bit forlorn, and Nate wondered if he'd misread the situation.

"As of uhhh," Tyson checked his watch, "about three hours ago, yeah." He grinned sheepishly at Nate. "I'm a bit slow sometimes."

"None of that," Nate said to him. "Gabe, you asked us both out on purpose. Was it so you could get the 'hurt my Drift partner and I will end you' talk out of the way? Because this seems pretty elaborate for that."

Gabe blinked several times. "Three... you mean you  _ just _ ..." He blinked again.

"We're both kinda dense about feelings," Nate said, and Tyson laughed. He glanced over at Tys, who shrugged and made a "go on" gesture. "Why do I always have to... fine."

Gabe looked up as Nate sidled closer. "Look, you guys are amazing together and I don't wanna fuck with that." He was about to continue when Tyson slid up to his other side. "Uh."

"You missed an important question," Tyson murmured close to his ear, and Nate got to watch as Gabe's eyes darkened and he started leaning back into the brunet. "You didn't ask if we were exclusive."

"Seems like a huge detail," Nate agreed, running a hand along Gabe's abs over the t-shirt and enjoying the muscles jumping. "We had a very critical discussion about all three of us," he said, wanting to kiss the Swede but trying to make sure this was the right play first. "We kinda need to finish that, huh?"

Gabe swallowed. "Really? Both of you? And it's not weird?"

"If it's not weird to you, since we're Drift partners," Tyson said, running soft fingers from Gabe's jaw down to his shoulder and back. "I feel like we may be ganging up on you a bit here."

"I like it," Gabe blurted, and Nate sighed in relief and yanked Gabe forward into a kiss. It was a bit more forceful than he'd meant to be because Tyson was driving him just as crazy as he was Gabe, but he didn't hear complaints from either party. Gabe's mouth was soft on his, but insistent, and Tyson had one hand stroking across Nate's face as he kissed the back of Gabe's neck. 

It got a little tangled after that, Nate and Tyson passing Gabe's mouth back and forth, with occasional breaks to kiss each other. Gabe moaned, actually  _ moaned _ the first time they did that, and Nate laughed softly. "Yeah?" he murmured, and licked into Tyson's mouth. "You like that?"

Gabe reached up to touch both of them as they kissed above him. "Fuck, you two are so hot," he said, pulling Tyson down to nip at his collarbones. "We need to uh, get back." He groaned as the other two obligingly sat up. "We're kind of in public," he said. "I was not expecting this to go  _ this _ well." He ran a hand up under Tyson's shirt to stroke his back. "Not dreaming, right?"

Nate laughed at that and Tyson rolled his eyes at his partner. "Don't even," he said. "You're not dreaming, Gabe," he added softly, bending down to kiss the Swede again and biting his lip, not hard enough to break the skin but hard enough to sting. "There."

"Thanks," Gabe said, reaching over for Nate. "Okay. Okay, we need to call a car and at least get somewhere more private before the park staff comes and kicks us out for being lewd in public."

"Is that a threat or a promise?" Nate asked, and laughed as Gabe closed his eyes. 

"I notice you didn't bring dessert," Tyson observed as he replaced his snapback and they pulled themselves back together. "What was the plan there?"

Gabe grinned, recovering his swagger as they all straightened clothes and cleaned up the remains of the picnic. He put an almost proprietary hand on the small of Nate's back as he reached down for the basket. "Well, as I recall you said you'd bake for me if you got the chance. I thought we could hit up the grocery store and then head back. There's an auxiliary kitchen in my wing that no one uses right now."

Nate decided he may as well enjoy the last bit of time out here and kissed Tyson as they came together for the blanket folding. Tyson grinned and kissed him back. "I like this idea; I was not kidding about how good the lava cakes are," Nate said as they parted, repeating the experience with Gabe and the other blanket because why not? 

Tyson nodded, looking dazed but pleasantly so. "Yeah, let's do it. Ice cream or whipped cream on top?" he said without thinking, and Nate made a noise. "Shut it, you," Tyson said, turning red for the first time in at least an hour.

Gabe, still very into the plan, said, "Both. I'm sure we can come up with another use for the whipped cream if we don't put it on the lava cakes." 

Nate  _ tried _ not to laugh, he really did. But Tyson's face was an experience. He ended up having to sit down, he was laughing so hard. "Can I borrow that blanket? I need to smother someone," Tyson said, but he said it with just as much affection as embarrassment. "Oh, come on, Nate, it's not that funny," he added as Nate continued giggling.

"It very much is, since it started all this," Nate said.

Tyson's exasperation softened. He sat down next to Nate, pulling Gabe down as well, and explained. Gabe laughed as well, but Nate was leaning on Tyson's shoulder and stroking his hair by the end of it, and the brunet sighed and kissed Nate's forehead. "Well, I guess it all worked out."

"I thought I was gonna have to coax you into touching each other," Gabe admitted, his hand brushing Nate's as they both toyed with Tyson's hair.

"Thank god for your abs and whipped cream, then," Nate said, and Tyson snorted and kissed him on the mouth to shut him up.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Pacific Rim soundtrack; it's the title of the song that plays while Raleigh and Mako are sparring. I came up with the trio passing drill myself, but it was loosely based off a drill Bednar ran at practice.


End file.
